Transnational and Global Dimensions of Justice and Memory Processes in Europe and Latin America

Justice and memory processes that had accompanied the “third wave of democratisation” have been the subject of a large body of academic literature. These works have commonly taken certain approaches. Some have analysed these processes within national borders or by providing comparative accounts of countries seen as discrete units,disconnected from transnational or global developments. Others, by contrast, have tried to account for the criminalization of dictatorships and conflicts in terms of the emergence of international norms based on an ethics of human rights and a “cosmopolitan memory” – often driven by a decontextualized remembrance of the Holocaust. This scholarship has however tended to overgeneralize global trends without always grasping the complexity of local attempts at dealing with the past. In the last ten years, a third approach, focusing on specific transnational entanglements, has gained ground. This emerging literature has started to analyze empirically transnational activism, exchanges of knowledge and expertise at bilateral, regional or international levels, the impact of legal and mnemonic narratives outside their countries of origin, and the role of international organizations and NGOs in dealing with mass violence.

Focusing on Europe and Latin America, this conference aims to take stock of this transnational turn in justice and memory studies and to develop a socio-historical analysis of the circulation of norms, repertoires of collective action and models adopted to deal with the legacies of authoritarian regimes and armed conflicts. It seeks to trace the interconnections and mutual influences of these processes both within Europe and Latin America and between the two regions, as well as the mobilizations of European and Latin American actors in international institutions, global NGOs, or at venues on other continents.

Jeudi 8 juin 2017

Ouverture : 8.45 – 9.00 James Mark (University of Exeter)

Panel 1 : 9.00 – 11.00

Circulation of legal and historical narratives about violent pasts between Europe and Latin America

Modératrice : Raluca Grosescu (University of Exeter)

Alejandro Baer (University of Minnesota), Ghosts of the Holocaust in Spain and Argentina : The Global Memory Paradox and the “ethics of Never Again”

David Copello (IEP, Paris), The influence of Jacques Vergès’ theory on the political violence trials in Argentina

Gabriela Fried Amilivia (California State University of Los Angeles), The Transnational movement of children of the dictatorship : the case of Blood-based victim associations from the Southern Cone to regional and US/European networks : HiJos-Argentina, Uruguay and Chile, Mexico in their struggle for Justice and Recognition

Discutante : Sophie Daviaud (Sciences Po Aix)

Dîner 19.30

Vendredi 9 juin

Panel 4 : 9.00-10.15

Criminalisation from Afar

Modératrice : Barbara Törnquist-Plewa (University of Lund)

Anna Wójcik (Polish Academy of Science), Eastern Europe and the Recognition of the Armenian Genocide – Chances and Obstacles to a New European Standard